Posted By Patrick Teyhan
Colleagues, On a Fire Action Notice i.e.

Raise the Alarm
leave via the nearest Exit
or leave building and report to the person in charge of the assembly point (location of Assembly Point)

Is it compulsory to have the location of the Assembly point on the Fire Action Notice?

Your comment / guidance would be most welcome.

Posted By Tom Clark
Where else are the evacuees going to go?
How will you check everyone is out of the building?
If they wander off you won't know who's out or unaccounted for.

Fire and Rescue service pulls up - Is everyone out? 'Don't know'
Would they be happy - No
Would they issue an Improvement notice or prosecute. I would have.

Posted By Stephen Lambert
No assembly point, no adequate safety system!

If I have to send firefighters in because your systems are not capable of telling me that you have got everyone out, not only would I be reaching for the Enforcement Notice form but I would be telling any firefighter with a consequent injury to start civil procedings for your negligence!

Mr Prescott and his acolytes have made it clear that individual management systems cannot rely on the intervention of the F&RS. Basically, you've got to get out anyone you let in AND you've got to be able to prove it.

Talk about lighting the blue touchpaper!

Have fun

Steve

Posted By Stephen_S_Edwards
Patrick, as usual, you have received a number of smart arsed responses!
It seems that some people on this forum revel in their own self-importance! Just give the guy the advice without the condescending tone.

Make sure that you who is in your building at any given time.
Make sure you have a system whereby you can trace everyone.
Make sure you have a system in place for effective evacuation in the event of an emergency.
Make sure everyone knows what to do in the event of such an emergency / evacuation, including where to convene.
Test it!

Hope this helps Patrick, if not, email me,

Regards,

Steve

Posted By Patrick Teyhan
Hands up who think it is not Compulsory?

Regards

Patrick

Posted By Stephen_S_Edwards
Patrick (and Tom)

The Workplace (HSW)Reg 2 . states.....'provide employees with comprehensible and relevant information, training and instruction and measures to be taken in connection with safety signs'

So, if you are going to use a safety sign, and a Fire Risk Assessment will deem a number of 'Fire Action' signs to be necessary, then you have to ensure that employees are in no doubt as to what measures are to be taken in relation to that sign. So, to answer the original question, yes, it is a requirement to specify where the Muster Point is.

Cheers,

Steve

Posted By Laurie
Sorry, but I have never believed in assembly points, preferring to use "the nearest safe open area"

The reason for this is that I have, in a real fire situation, seen evacuees going going through a hazardous area just to get their assembly point (out of the fire exit and along a walkway being showered with broken glass from exploding windows). In addition, if they are not in their usual work area at the time of the fire they may exit a long way from their normal assembly point and may then add to the general confusion by trying to get their normal assembly point, perhaps against the general traffic flow.

I know it is all very neat and tidy during a fire drill, but in a real, disastrous, fire people tend to be a bit irrational, and do silly things.

If you try to move people from a car park because the emergency services need access they will willingly move. If you try to move them from a designated assembly point they will argue, and mill about.

This policy has never caused me any grief from any inspector, enforcer, insurer or fire authority, and to get back to the original question, I have never been threatened with prosecution, with at least one fire prevention officer commenting positively in writing.

I know from experience that this will be a very controversial and hotly debated view, but believe me it has been forged, literally, by experience.

Please do not come back at me with roll-calls; regular readers of this forum will know my views on their efficacy!

Laurie

Posted By Neil Pearson
Every fire safety officer I've ever come across behaves as if fire action notices are compulsory! But must they specify where the assembly point is? The answer to your question is a very definite "no". Our notices do not say where the assembly points are. They just say to evacuate to the nearest assembly point. Once outside, there are signs saying "Assembly point" with an arrow. It's hard to be clearer than that. Personally I think this is the best possible arrangement, and the local fire safety office is happy too.

Posted By J Knight
We have to have them (fire notices), as it happens, but because of best practice guidance (in our case the NHS Estates Firecode series) and not because 'it is the law'. We are in the enviable position of being required by the Care Standards Regs 2000 to abide by best practice in the case of fire, so I suppose that for us in a roundabout kind of way it is the law,

John